posted
I came across a site (here) that claims that most of us have some sort of parasite within our guts. Now I think the site is probably a load of crap (no pun intended) since it looks like it's trying to sell something, but it's got me curious. Are parasites really that common even in developed countries? If not, how common are they in reality?
- Pseudo_Croat
-------------------- "At all events, people who deny the influence of smaller nations should remember that the Croats have the rest of us by the throats." - Norman Davies, Europe: A History
God wants spiritual fruits, not religious nuts. Posts: 4578 | From: Sunrise, FL | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
It's so absurd it almost reads like a parody.
-------------------- "There is no constitutional right to sleep with endangered reptiles." -- Carl Hiaasen Won't somebody please think of the adults! Posts: 8254 | From: Florida | Registered: Oct 2002
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posted
I would guess it depends on how broadly they define "parasite".
We are definatly all hosts to a wide range of critters in our guts, many of them that we need and on which we co-depend. Much of the rest being usually harmless and just along for a ride.
So I suspect that the 80% number they are trying to use to scare you with lumps some of these mostly harmless and maybe even some of the benificial critters to which we are hosts.
Posts: 287 | From: Sacramento, CA | Registered: Sep 2005
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One should be carefull of any treatment that indescrimantly tries to rid one of all these creatures.
We do need some of them to properly digest our food and if they are removed one can find oneself in some digestive destress, possible seriously.
It sometimes happens when agressive anti-biotics are taken for good or bad reasons.
Posts: 287 | From: Sacramento, CA | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
One of my professors in college, during a lecture on nematodes, claimed that if all organic matter in the world were to disappear, with the exceptions of nematodes, ghostly outlines of everything in the biosphere would remain, composed entirely of worms (hovering worms, I guess).
I have no idea if what he said was true.
Posts: 113 | From: DeKalb, IL | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
Agreed- absurity playing on the fears we all have of "parasites" and "infections". Particularly of the candida yeasts... a perfectly NORMAL organism for humans to have present, just on occasion it may overgrow and cause problems (ie, women's issues). There is a whole cottage industry convincing people they have "candida allergies" and blaming them for a host of health problems. Quackwatch has articles about such "cleansing" products and "candida hypersensitivity".
-------------------- "There is a race between mankind and the universe. Mankind is trying to build bigger, better, faster, and more foolproof machines. The universe is trying to build bigger, better, and faster fools. So far the universe is winning." -Albert Einstein Posts: 1058 | From: Yakima, WA | Registered: Dec 2005
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You've got the internal parasites, like Ascaris which is estimated to infect a quarter of all humans. It's the most common Helminthic infection. Then there are pinworms, the most common parasitic worm in the United States. As many as 50% of preschool children may have pinworms. Hookworms, tapeworms, lymphatic filariasis are also fairly common in humans. Dracunculiasis only affects about 16,000 each year but since it's the most horrifying parasitic worm I can think of, it gets a mention.
And that's just the worms! Malaria is caused by a protozoan parasite, as is leishmaniasis. There are about 50 million cases of amoebiasis each year. My brother had dysentery when he was in Iraq, and from what he told me, it's very unpleasant.
And then you have all the stuff like scabies, head lice, ticks, fleas, leeches and my personal favorite: Candiru, although that doesn't actually affect too many people.
Fascinating stuff!
Aura- a parisotology hobbyist
-------------------- "Are we talking misdemeanor trouble or squeal like a pig trouble?" Posts: 618 | From: Ann Arbor, Michigan | Registered: May 2006
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posted
I don't know how common it is to have the "bad kind" of internal parasites in a developed country, but I would guess not horribly common. If 80% of Americans were getting sick from harmful parasites, don't you think we'd all know a few people afflicted with them?
The only person I've ever known who had parasites (bad ones) is my sister. She went to Guatemala about 7 years ago, and shortly after she got back she started to get sick. She experienced extreme pain in her stomach and would bloat after every meal - looking like she was pregnant every time she ate. She was constantly exhausted, dizzy, and just all around sick. She went to doctor after doctor, and none of them could figure out what was wrong with her.
This went on for almost 5 years, sometimes getting a little better, sometimes a little worse, until finally she saw a doctor who was originally from another country (I think somewhere in Africa). He took one look at her chart and said "Hey, you've got parasites." I guess all the docs she'd seen before who had no experience in the third world never thought of it, but it was obvious to this doctor who had seen such things before. He prescribed her something (I don't remember what) and in a couple of weeks she was fine.
Of course this didn't stop her from traveling all over the freaking world, so she's gotten all kinds of interesting ailments since then. Most recently, malaria. She's fine now.
Canuckistan
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
quote:Are parasites really that common even in developed countries?
Washington and New York ...
... oh, it's just too easy.
-------------------- People need to stop appropriating Jesus as their reason for behaving badly. It's so irritating. (Avril) Posts: 8429 | From: New York run by the Swiss (Toronto) | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
the majority of women will at sometime in their lives host a parasite that will require a hospital visit, and increasingly invasive surgery to remove.
...the good news is when it turns 5 you can send it off to boarding school.
-------------------- "I still say Obi-wan Kenobi was The Force's bitch." Posts: 820 | From: North Carolina | Registered: Nov 2004
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"Well over 80% of patients we check have some type of parasite or bacteria..."
We all have bacteria - normal bacteria for our digestive system to function properly. Without them, our absorption of nutrients is impaired.
Posts: 229 | From: Lynchburg, VA | Registered: Jan 2005
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And then you have all the stuff like scabies, head lice, ticks, fleas, leeches and my personal favorite: Candiru, although that doesn't actually affect too many people.
Fascinating stuff!
Aura- a parisotology hobbyist
Can't believe you mentioned Candiru... not too many people know about that... and not many people believe there's such a thing as a parasitic fish!
Posts: 229 | From: Lynchburg, VA | Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
I'm dredging up this thread because this afternoon, a friend of mine complained that she'd been having headaches all day from a parasite medication she was taking.
"You have parasites?!" I asked.
"Yeah, we all do. Like, 90% of people have parasites in their intestines."
I asked her where she got this information.
"I don't remember...I think it was a doctor or something. No, wait, I went to a nutritionist on campus last spring and she told me this."
Now my friend has a biology degree, same as I do, and she's working toward the same Bachelor's degree in ecology as I am. But last year she also told me that her boss had bought a cactus that later made a weird buzzing sound until it popped open and thousands of spiders came crawling out.
So I explained that the parasite story was bogus, designed to sell a product.
"Oh. Well, the pills weren't too expensive. It's all herbal, what I'm taking. I think there's rose hips in it."
"So, did you actually have your doctor test you for parasites?"
"...Well, no..."
As our conversation progressed, my friend divulged that the same nutritionist who'd told her about the parasites also claimed that a Chalupa from Taco Bell constituted a fully nutritios meal from all the food groups. "She said it's got meat, cheese...the lettuce and tomato count for the fruit and vegetables, the wrap part is your carbohydrates, and the mayonnaise also counts as dairy. I was like, 'What?!'".
Eventually I got my friend to admit that this so-called nutritionist on campus was probably not the best person to be giving advice. I really hope my friend stops wasting her money on useless herbal pills to destroy parasites she doesn't even have.
Sigh.
-------------------- "There is no constitutional right to sleep with endangered reptiles." -- Carl Hiaasen Won't somebody please think of the adults! Posts: 8254 | From: Florida | Registered: Oct 2002
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posted
Mayo counts as dairy? How does that work, even assuming you ate enough of it to be a full serving (ewwwww)? It is just eggs and oil. You would think a nutritionist would know that, at least. The other stuff is slightly out of their field and so they may be taken in, but not knowing what is in mayonaise?
-------------------- "Accompanied by the ghosts of dolphins, the ghost of a ship sailed on..." Terry Pratchett Posts: 660 | From: Gainesville, FL | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
I can't understand why so many people think mayo is a dairy product. I'm allergic to dairy, and I can't believe the number of people who *argue* with me about mayo being dairy. It's eggs and oil, people! Is it that hard to read a label?!?! Then again, I'm astonished by how many people think eggs are dairy.
Ahem.
To return to the OP: parasitic infection is not all that uncommon in developed countries, or, at least, not as uncommon as we might like. This study found an overall incidence of about 20 per 100,000 for giardia infection and 6 per 100,000 for cryptosporidium infection, in a Canadian population.
I had giardiasis several years ago (from tap water) and did a lot of research at the time. This article by PollutionProbe cites Giardia contamination rates of 21% in untreated water and 18% in treated municipal water. The rates for cryptosporidium were 5% and 4% respectively.
Those numbers, and my own experience, are why I now drink filtered water.
posted
Well, that answers the question re: protozoan intestinal parasites. Did you dig up any similar data re: worms, lynnejanet?
- Pseudo_Croat
-------------------- "At all events, people who deny the influence of smaller nations should remember that the Croats have the rest of us by the throats." - Norman Davies, Europe: A History
God wants spiritual fruits, not religious nuts. Posts: 4578 | From: Sunrise, FL | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
A large number of people consider eggs to be dairy so I can see why they would think of mayonnaise as dairy.
-------------------- Officially Heartless Posts: 3065 | From: The Montgomery County of the West Coast- Berkeley, CA | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Numbers of people affected: The number of people affected by schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections is staggering. Around 2 billion people harbour these infections: in other words, worms infect more than a third of the world's population.
Beneficial bacteria in the gut that assist with digestion are not parasites. The definition of parasite is
"A symbiotic relationship in which one partner (the parasite) benefits and the other (the host) is harmed, though typically not killed directly by the action of the parasite."
-------------------- "The women who embraced in the wagon were Adam and Eve crossing a dark cathedral stage—no, Eve and Eve, loving one another as they would not be able to once they ate of the fruit and knew themselves as they truly were." - Lynn Cheney, Sisters. Posts: 289 | From: California | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Oceanic Aura: And then you have all the stuff like scabies, head lice, ticks, fleas, leeches and my personal favorite: Candiru, although that doesn't actually affect too many people.
Not sure that that webpage is the most acurate source for info on Candiru.
This:
quote:When candirus parasitize humans, it is usually only when they are skinny-dipping while urinating in the water. The candiru tastes the urine stream and follows it back to the human. It then swims up the anus and lodges itself somewhere in the urinary tract with its spines. Blood is drawn, and the candiru gorges itself on both the blood and body tissue, its body sometimes expanding due to the amount of blood. This is all said to be very painful for the poor person who has this happen to him or her. Unfortunately, they are almost impossible to remove due to the spines. Amputation of the private areas is the cheapest, and most life-changing, way to remove the fish. Actual surgery is extremely expensive and involves inserting the Xagua plant and the Buitach apple up the urethra. These two plants kill and even dissolve the parasitic fish. If surgery is not done in time, the blockage of the urinary tract will prove fatal. The candiru is the only known vertebrate to parasitize humans.
Kinda causes me to be wary of its information. Since when is the anus part of the urniary tract?
-------------------- Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket? Posts: 782 | From: Arlington, TX | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
They probably transposed anus and penis. Not that hard a mistake to make...
-------------------- "Accompanied by the ghosts of dolphins, the ghost of a ship sailed on..." Terry Pratchett Posts: 660 | From: Gainesville, FL | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
Did any of you see Animal Planet's Eaten Alive this past Tuesday?
-------------------- Leashes?! We don't need no stinking leashes!! Posts: 4771 | From: The Berkeley of the East Coast: Montgomery County MD | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Oooohhh parasites! The most disgusting and appalling and fascinating things in biology are involved with parasites.
First off, what types of parasites are we looking at? I suggest organisms that spend at least part of their life cycle in the human host and won't kill a healthy human, but cause some discomfort
In response to the OP, parasites of the digestive system
Pinworms: Small, a couple of centimetres long, live in lower tract. Female leaves via anus and deposits eggs on skin. According to the Center for Disease Control it's common among schoolchildren, and up to 50% infection in some groups.
Tapeworms: Long flat worms. Less common in developed countries that have sanitation facilities and meat inspection. The beef tapeworm is digestive only, but the pork worm can lay cysts that migrate to the brain, causing seizures. WHO gives an infection rate of about 10% of the population. It's listed under the Office of Rare Diseases, which means that it affects less than 200 000 people in the USA
Roundworms: Also known as nematodes. Ascaris lumbricoides is very commonly known. It is the most common worm infection in humans, and affects about a quarter of the population.
I'd love to continue, but my stomach's rumbling and I have too much schoolwork Posts: 69 | From: Nova Scotia | Registered: Sep 2006
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posted
That nice info, Muncle, but how many Americans do said roundworms infest?
All in all, I'm beginning to think that this "80% of all Americans are infested with parasites" is a load of, well, crap. I'm suspecting the figure is probably closer to 5%. However, I wouldn't be surprised if 80% of all Americans catch some kind of parasite (usually protozoan around here) at some time in their lives.
- Pseudo (had pinworms as a toddler) Croat
-------------------- "At all events, people who deny the influence of smaller nations should remember that the Croats have the rest of us by the throats." - Norman Davies, Europe: A History
God wants spiritual fruits, not religious nuts. Posts: 4578 | From: Sunrise, FL | Registered: Apr 2002
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That post took a lot of time for such a small post. It seemed much bigger in the textbox. But it got me digging through my notes from a couple of years ago.
As for parasites in general, it depends on how you define "parasite." Generally the organism has to be living in your system for a prolonged period of time, and be in relatively small numbers. This is generally why bacterial or viral infections aren't considered "parasitic." I find that the general line is between prokaryotes (bacteria) and eukaryotes (amoeba, protozoa, worms, elephants), with some exceptions. Trypanosoma and Plasmodium are considered parasites, and cause sleeping sickness and malaria respectively. Tomorrow I'll talk to the parasitology prof here and come back with more definitive guidelines.
quote:One of my professors in college, during a lecture on nematodes, claimed that if all organic matter in the world were to disappear, with the exceptions of nematodes, ghostly outlines of everything in the biosphere would remain, composed entirely of worms (hovering worms, I guess).
Worms are now inorganic?
-------------------- "For me, religion is like a rhinoceros: I don't have one, and I'd really prefer not to be trampled by yours. But it is impressive, and even beautiful, and, to be honest, the world would be slightly worse off if there weren't any." -Silas Sparkhammer Posts: 3239 | From: Ontario, Canada | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:One of my professors in college, during a lecture on nematodes, claimed that if all organic matter in the world were to disappear, with the exceptions of nematodes, ghostly outlines of everything in the biosphere would remain, composed entirely of worms (hovering worms, I guess).
Worms are now inorganic?
Emphasis mine.
-------------------- Små hönor skall inte lägga stora ägg för då blir de slarviga i ändan Posts: 1334 | From: Sweden | Registered: Feb 2000
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quote:Originally posted by ThistleSmelt: A large number of people consider eggs to be dairy so I can see why they would think of mayonnaise as dairy.
Yes, but wouldn't those people just be dead wrong? Eggs aren't dairy in the least.
I'm glad I'm not the only one though who thinks parasites are really, really, really cool. I was beginning to think I was weird.
Wait...
That's coming from the person who secretly hopes to pick up a human bot fly (just one on my arm) one of these times I am in South/Central America. Remind me why I didn't major in biology again? (stupid! stupid! stupid me!)
-------------------- "How do you make chocolate? You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk, and it becomes a delicious drink. That is the chocolate I am talking about." --Ray Nagin Posts: 1325 | From: Missouri | Registered: Sep 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Oceanic Aura: And then you have all the stuff like scabies, head lice, ticks, fleas, leeches and my personal favorite: Candiru, although that doesn't actually affect too many people.
Not sure that that webpage is the most acurate source for info on Candiru.
This:
quote:When candirus parasitize humans, it is usually only when they are skinny-dipping while urinating in the water. The candiru tastes the urine stream and follows it back to the human. It then swims up the anus and lodges itself somewhere in the urinary tract with its spines. Blood is drawn, and the candiru gorges itself on both the blood and body tissue, its body sometimes expanding due to the amount of blood. This is all said to be very painful for the poor person who has this happen to him or her. Unfortunately, they are almost impossible to remove due to the spines. Amputation of the private areas is the cheapest, and most life-changing, way to remove the fish. Actual surgery is extremely expensive and involves inserting the Xagua plant and the Buitach apple up the urethra. These two plants kill and even dissolve the parasitic fish. If surgery is not done in time, the blockage of the urinary tract will prove fatal. The candiru is the only known vertebrate to parasitize humans.
Kinda causes me to be wary of its information. Since when is the anus part of the urniary tract?
Our Favorite Uncle Cecil Agrees with most of what that guy says, it was probably a switch up between anus and penis that was his only mistake.
-------------------- W.W.F.S.M.D? But this image of Bush as some sort of Snidely Whiplash tying the fair maiden to the railroad tracks is beyond the pale. - Joe Bentley Posts: 2311 | From: Minnnesota | Registered: Mar 2004
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Eggs aren't dairy in the least.
